Medill: After long break, musings are back

Thursday

Jul 18, 2013 at 9:02 PM

While I have been busy musing, the months of May, and June have flown by. So before July passes by, let’s get down to business.

Tabor Medill

While I have been busy musing, the months of May, and June have flown by. So before July passes by, let’s get down to business:* What an awesome summer of baseball and softball. Our numbers have grown considerably, especially in girls softball.Some softball highlights include: After sign-ups and late registration, we only had 22 girls in the 14-16 Marie Wadlow age group.One week before we were going to be forced to cancel the season for this age group due to a lack of participation, Larry Eddy, George Johnson, and Helen Schwinn beat the pavement and we ended up with 51 girls.We then commandeered Rocky Cannon and David Price to coach teams in the league along with Larry Eddy and George Johnson. This Friday, we will end our season which featured four teams. I want to express my appreciation to everyone who helped make this a success.In our itty-bitty Joan Joyce league, ages 7-8, last season we only had enough for one team of 11 girls when we started. This year, we had three teams of at least 11 girls.I actually umpired a game Wednesday between the Columbia Blue (Scott Mackey) and the Purple (Tanner Reinhold). It was so exciting to see the improvement of the girls and to see the direction that our girls program is headed.Our third team was coached by Mary Garrison who I literally begged to coach a team after watching her in basketball and realizing how she made the girls feel so good about themselves. She told me, “I don’t know anything about softball.”My response was, “That is okay. You know how to make the sport fun for the girls and want to come back.” She did just that and I will bet that everyone of her girls return next season. Thanks coaches.Our Donna Lopiano league, 11-13 year olds, grew by one team this season. Again, watching the growth of the girls should be a huge compliment to these individuals.A high five is not good enough for the efforts of these folks, so here is a rousing big ten to: Chip Collins, Stacy Cross, Joy Ewert, Christy Herbig, Jeff Lanter, Wendy Sachen and Kelsey Stuart.* Everyone remember that Thursday from 7:30-9 p.m. the Wollman Aquatics staff will be hosting the 2nd Annual Baseball/Softball season ending pool party for the families of all of our participants from the city's baseball/softball programs.A big shout-out to Ms. Nancy Baker, Recreation Program Supervisor for Aquatics, and her staff for making this possible for everyone.* Adult softball has only one undefeated team at this point in the season. The Ball Busters (Heather Goodwin) has an unblemished 8-0 record at this time in the adult women’s softball.Luxury Imports (Deb Guse), a new addition to women’s softball, is currently in second place sporting a 5-3 record. Kristy Krum also brought in William White and Sons as a new women’s team.Wendi Anaya added Gronis as a sponsor to the Ten Penny/Gronis team. April Norberto’s team picked up Green Leaf Nutrition as her sponsor for this season. Welcome to all of the new sponsors.* Men’s softball has been extremely competitive this season. We also welcomed five new teams into our leagues this year: Goosetown Reds (Bob VanSchoelandt), Great Western 2 (Jimmy Watkins), LCF (Tim Banks), LV All-Stars (Ray Honeycutt) and the Saints (Jhon Haehn).Great Western 1 (Todd Eastburn), who was moved into Division I after years in Division II, leads the league with an 7-1 record. In Division II, the Goosetown Reds (Bob VanSchoelandt) at 7-2, currently has a one game lead over the Trent Peter Agency (Tony Williams).Great Western 2 currently leads Division III with a 6-1 mark; North Pointe Shipping heads a very competitive battle for second place with a 5-2 record with LV All-Stars (Ray Honecutt) right behind at 4-2.I want to thank Warden Rex Pryor and Deputy Warden Kyle Deere, who have allowed the inmates of the Lansing Correctional Facility (LCF), after years of being absent, to return to our league and they have been very competitive with the other Division I teams.As for the Goosetown Reds, tune in next week for the story behind this team.* For all of our softball enthusiasts, we have an important meeting coming this Tuesday. The City Commissioners are scheduled to vote on the future of the Eagles softball field project.Several of you have asked me to let you know when the meeting will be. The meeting will be in the City Commission meeting room in city jall at 7 p.m. Enter the building through the north doors.Everyone’s support is appreciated.* Sign-up is currently going on for the fall coed softball leagues. Division I will play on Monday and Wednesday nights. Division II will play Tuesday and Thursday nights.If you are not sure which division your team will go into, contact me and I will let you know.* For those of you looking to relive your childhood or to just participate in an activity that is just a hoot - coed kickball registration is currently on-going. I can tell you from being at the field on many occasions last year that it is a blast.To this day, I can still see Klaus Sanford sliding face-first into third base. I am still not sure if any other part of his body, besides his face, touched the ground until he arrived on the third base bag.Oh, and he was safe.* All of you runners out there, we have our 2nd Annual Dog Daze Duathlon coming up. Unfortunately, my two Boston Terrier pups are not allowed to enter this event as it is limited to human participants.The event will take place on Aug. 11 with a 7:30 a.m. start at Warren Middle School. This event, which is USTA sanctioned, features a 5K run, 20-mile bike ride and a 5K finish run.The top male and female will win $100 cash. I want to recognize all of our awesome sponsors at this time: St. Luke’s Cushing Hospital, Family Dental Care, Geiger Ready-Mix, Henry Martens Chevrolet, J.F. Denney, Mama Mia’s and Reilly and Sons.Tabor Medill is the recreation supervisor for the Leavenworth Parks and Recreation Department.

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